Posts Tagged ‘Correct Position’

In my article “Supple Posture, a Depth of Seat: Discovering Skeletal Balance, Core Efficiency, and Supple Control” I wrote in general about the elements that allow riders to move with the motion of their horse. In this article I’ll explain what I mean by skeletal balance, or the ability of a rider to balance through the skeleton and adapt to the motion of the horse in a biomechanically correct position from seat bones to head . At the end you’ll find a movement lesson that will help riders identify the motion of their pelvis and how that relates to the whole spinal movement.

Skeletal balance means that a person uses the skeleton and only a minimal of muscle exertion to remain upright and move. It is the posture most of us have as children: easy, light, and adaptable to the environment. It is the posture we have before we begin to slouch, before injury or illness has affected the way we stand and move, and before society has imposed “correct” or fashionable posture on us. It is a natural, dynamic organization of the skeleton that allows the force from the ground to go through the bones and joints without shearing forces or undue impact on the joints of our hips or spine. It cannot be externally imposed on us or created through core strength or by tucking in our tummies with shoulders back. We can however, learn to recognize when we are balanced through our skeleton.

Skeletal balance is essential to ride in comfort and it is especially important for riders of horses that perform in dressage, reining, endurance, working cow horse, jumping and other high demand sports. When we are organized well through our skeleton, our joints are free to open and flex, our muscles are used only minimally for the task of balance. Our bodies are available for adapting and adjusting to all the various movements our horses send our way. Our spine is long and our back and abdominal muscles are not tense or shortened, our breath is easy because our ribs can expand in all directions, and our head is balanced softly on our neck. We respond easily to our horse’s motion, no matter what the gait. And we can communicate to our horse with soft aids.

It is important to realize that with skeletal balance our spine is long, elastic and stable, not ‘stabilized’ or held. Forces flow through our bodies, without being stopped at any particular joint and causing us pain or the need to protect our low back or neck. When we use our muscles to support an upright but unbalanced posture, we have to hold ourselves up with areas of tension. We do this when we habitually lean back and stand on our heels, slouch our shoulders, or stand with one hip cocked. If we sit more on one side of our pelvis or with our head jutted forward we will also use muscles to hold ourselves in this unbalanced position.

While sitting on a horse, riders typically create tension by leaning back, slouching, leaning forward, or sitting off to one side. None of these postures allow the energy from the horse to flow through the rider and horse or rider or both will suffer. The rider who leans back will pound on the horse’s back, unyielding. The rider who arches the low back will likely experience pain and discomfort and possibly injury. The rider who sits more heavily on one seat bone will constantly be trying to center the saddle and cause the horse to develop stronger muscles on one side to support the unbalanced rider.

The balanced rider is fluent, not stiff or guarding, and the forces coming from the horse’s back flow up through the rider. The horse can easily maintain a symmetrical balance. The rider’s muscles are ready to act to follow or influence the horse’s gaits and give the aids.

How do you find skeletal balance? By rediscovering the natural balance you had as a child, and re-educating your neural pathways to give up poor habits and adopt rider and horse-friendly habits of dynamic skeletal balance. Try the simple exploration below which will help you begin to discover the balance essential for sitting in unity with your horse.

Balance Through Your Spine
Spend about 20 minutes on this exploration. Do each movement slowly and from 8 to 12 or more times, paying attention to what you sense in different areas of your body. It is not important to make big movements, rather do this lesson in the spirit of learning about your own ability to move and sense yourself.

Sit on a firm, flat bench, your back not leaning against anything, thighs parallel to the ground or knees slightly lower, feet and knees hip width apart and feet flat on the ground.

1. Gently, make a small motion to round your back and come back to neutral. Repeat this about 10 times, bringing your attention to different parts of yourself each time.

Pause in a comfortable position, either leaning back or lying on the floor.

2. Again, sit with feet flat on the floor. Slowly round your back again and this time look down each time you bring the top of your pelvis back. Do this small movement 8 or more times. Then make the same rounding motion while looking up. Each time you look up think of bringing a different part of your face toward the ceiling.

Pause

3. Slowly and gently arch your back about 10 times. Feel the sensations on your seat bones, the bottom of your feet, in your chest.

Pause

4. Slowly arch your back again several times. Try looking up each time you arch. Do that about 6 times, slowly. Now look down each time your arch. A few more times arch your back but this time try looking up again. Has it gotten easier?

Pause, leaning back or lying on a flat surface.

5. Gently begin to alternately arch and round your back allowing your head to look down as you round and look up while you arch. Make this movement easy and light, there is no need to go to the furthest extent of your capacity. Arch and round several times, finding out how the movement has altered or if your perception has changed.

Pause

6. Again, begin to arch and then round. Now change the movement of your head so you look up when you round your back and look down when you arch your back. Do that several times.

7. Continue arching and rounding but again look down when you round and up when you arch. Has this movement become clearer or easier? Do you have more range of motion? Sit in the middle of arching and rounding. Can you sit here more easily than when you started?

Pause, leaning back or lying on a flat surface.

8. Once again sit with feet and knees hip width apart and feet flat on the floor. Begin again to arch and round. Make the movement light and easy. Now look straight ahead has you do this.

Pause again and then sit in neutral, finding out how it is to sit. Do you have a clearer sense of your spine?
Stand and discover if you stand differently. Walk around. Find out if you have a different sense of your spine and your balance.

Are you ready to follow the motion of your horse without tension, easily influencing his movement by giving light aids and getting a quick response? Are you tired of your instructor telling you to sit up, put your heels down, keep your hands or legs still? Have you bounced more than enough times, not able to sit the trot after years of riding?

You are not your habits and at any age your can become fluent in your movement and more effective in your riding. I have developed a unique program to teach riders an organic, natural way to improve their riding. With a combination of movement education, strengthening and balancing, and awareness building lessons you too can achieve the ride of your dreams!

My article “Seat Bones 101 – Moving in Unity With Your Horse For Greater Security & Control” has a walking seat bones exploration that will further help you identify your skeletal balance.
Michele Morseth, MA
Sit The Trot! Body Awareness and Movement Education for Equestrians and Everybody
Teaching clinics and workshops for all levels of equestrians through the nation.
Sisters, OR
http://www.SitTheTrot.com

Author: Michele Morseth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Does your horse have a weak topline?

Some horses just have conformation that promotes a weak topline. Whether your horse is swaybacked or loses his topline when he isn’t in training, a weak topline is never pretty. Luckily, there are three simple ways that you can help any horse build a stronger, better-looking topline.

#1: Build Your Horse’s Topline with Backing

When your horse walks backwards, he has to engage the muscles in his back and hindquarters, especially if he lowers his head while backing. Teaching your horse to back with his head down is a valuable time investment for two reasons:

1. It increases his topline

2. It puts him in a relaxed state because horses relax when their heads are low

At first, your horse may only want to back with his head up high. You may have to spend some time in the beginning teaching him to back with his head down low. Sometimes holding a treat down low can encourage your horse to drop his head.

I sometimes break the exercise into two pieces: dropping the head and backing. To teach my horse to lower his head, I crouch down low and gently tug on the lead rope. Most horses are curious enough to drop their heads and see what I’m doing. I reward that action with a treat. Next, I get teach him to lower his head while I’m standing up, again using a treat as a reward. Finally, I teach him to keep his head low while backing.

This may take several days, as some horses actually don’t know how to engage the correct muscles to back with their head low. At first, one of my horses could only take a step or two backward with his head in the correct position. It took several days before he could engage the correct muscles and back 10 steps or more.

Once your horse has learned to back with his head dropped, back him every day for 100 steps. This exercise will build the muscles in his topline, including his neck, back, and hindquarters. The results are actually surprisingly quick. You should see a difference in 2 weeks or so.

#2: Feed Your Horse on the Ground and Use Ground Toys

If you feed your horse in hanging bucket or manger, this may be contributing to his poor topline. To build a strong topline, horses need to stretch the muscles and ligaments in their topline. Feeding them on the ground will definitely help. In addition, consider using a ground toy that dispenses feed. There are a lot of options on the market, including the Nose-It, the Likit Snak-A-Ball, and the Amazing Graze toy.

These toys all roll around on the ground, which encourages your horse to keep his head down for long periods of time, thus stretching his topline muscles. When these muscles are stretched, they develop mass more easily.

I’ve used all three of the toys mentioned above, plus a few others that are no longer on the market. They work well because the slow dispensing of feed keeps your horse interested for longer than a non-food toy. It also keeps him engaged for longer than his normal hay or grain allotment.

One additional benefit is that having your horse stretch his topline is that this prevents his withers from “getting stuck,” which is the case in a lot of horses that are “built downhill.” They are not actually built that way, but their withers are stuck so they look downhill. Once their withers are released, they will have a more balanced-looking topline.

#3: Feed Raw Coconut Oil

This works well for horses who are fat all over except over their topline. For some reason, the calories from raw coconut oil go to a horse’s topline. Most horses that have this problem of being fat but having no topline have a Shao Yin personality type. These horses can be absolute pudges, yet look swaybacked and ewe-necked. So it’s coconut oil to the rescue. If you have this kind of horse, here are the three resources you need:

• Get raw coconut oil at your health food store or online
• Learn more about Shao Yin and other horse personality types at the Horse Harmony website
• Type your horse’s personality online for free at the Horse Harmony Test website if you are not sure about his type

For those of you out there with topline-challenged horses, I hope these recommendations help. They have certainly helped my two horses who have this issue, even during the winter, when they are not in training. Hope these tips help your horse, too!

Stephanie Yeh is a zen cowgirl obsessed about horses, healing, natural remedies, herbs, magic, MLM, and more. Check out natural horse care tips, ways to fund your horse obsession, natural health products, and more on her blog ( http://zencowgirl.blogspot.com ) and order XanGo mangosteen products on her website ( http://www.mangosteengood.com ).

Author: Stephanie H. Yeh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Your horse comes to the gate happy to see you, then he spots the wormer tube and he prepares for battle. When you finally catch him and get the halter on you begin the event of deworming. If you are lucky, most of the wormer will not only end up in his mouth instead of your shirt, but it will also stay there and not end up on the ground. On bad days, you have to nurse your bruised feet and take a shower to get the wormer out of your hair. If this sounds remotely familiar then I have some lessons that can help you both in this simple process.

Over the years there have been many products developed to help with this procedure. There dewormers that are fed to the horse with his grain on a daily basis, different flavors of pastes and gels to make wormers more appealing to the horse and even ‘worming halters’ that help insure all the paste gets in the horses mouth and in the right place so it stays there. Now you will be able to teach your horse to accept paste.

We do not start with the goal, as that is the fastest way to get into a wreck, as your toes will attest to. We will start with a basic lesson that teaches your horse to put his head in the correct position to accept the wormer and leave it there until we ask him to move it. You can use a halter or bridle for this lesson and can do this in about any enclosed area. It is a good exercise to work on in the stall when you cannot go outside as well.

Start by standing on the left side of your horse and place your right hand on his poll with your fingers between his ears and your left hand about where the noseband of the halter lies. You will first teach your horse to lower his head to the pressure on his poll by placing light pressure with your right hand. Leave the pressure there until you see his head drop even a quarter inch. Do not add pressure if he raises his head. If he raises it too high for you to reach with your hand, then use the lead rope or rein and exert the same downward pressure. Remember to release the pressure as soon as his head goes in the downward direction, no matter how high it went and how little it goes down. We have to keep in mind we are teaching the horse to lower his head, not to put it where we started. Be sure to praise your horse for each correct guess with either a rub or encouraging voice.

Once the horse will lower his head each time you apply pressure and leave it lowered, you are ready to teach the horse to bring his head around to the side. First, bring the horses’ head down to a comfortable height with your right hand. Now, with your left hand apply pressure to the side of his nose at the point where the halter nose band would lay as if you were going to pull his head in front of you, but don’t pull. Just apply pressure and wait for him to move away from the pressure bringing his head to the side toward you. Leave your right hand at his poll and apply pressure if the horse raises his head during this part of the lesson. Always get the head at the correct elevation then ask to bring it to the side. When the horse raises his head, he is telling you he is uncertain and is tensing up. A good rule to follow is to go back in the lesson until you get the proper response then build on the correct answer. Again, release the pressure as soon as the horse moves away from it and praise the horse. When the horse understands to both lower his head and bring it in front of you, we will begin teaching the horse to leave his head where we place it.

Bring the horses head to the correct position using pressure and release. Release his head as soon as it is in the correct position. He will want to put it back straight so, when he does just bring it back. Count how long he leaves it to the side and try to build that time in small increments. When your horse will leave his head to the side for one minute, start messing with his face a little at a time. Allow the horse to put his head back forward when he does well. It can make the horses’ neck sore to keep it to the side too long so give him breaks, switch sides, and practice the same lessons on the other side. Rub his cheeks, nose, mouth, etc. and when he is comfortable with that start rubbing the sides of his lips where the wormer will be going.

Use extreme caution when working around the horses’ mouth that you do not place your fingers where they could be easily bitten. There is a gap between the incisors and molars that has no teeth. It is also where the bit rests. This is the only place you should put your fingers actually into their horses’ mouth. If you choose to do so, the horse will try to spit your finger/hand out with his tongue. Use extreme caution that you do not allow him to draw your finger/hand into his teeth where he could mistakenly bite them.

Place your right arm under the horses’ head and bring your right hand to the spot your left hand had been on the bridge of the horses’ nose. Now with your left hand carefully rub the insides of the lips and while lifting the lip out of the way with your right had, rub the outsides of his bars and gums until he is comfortable. Take small steps and if you meet a lot of resistance go back to a point the horse is comfortable and start back at that point and move forward slower.

When the horse is comfortable with one finger, move to two, then three, and so on until the horse will allow you to place your entire hand in his mouth at his bars, staying relaxed and calm. Your horse should also allow you to hold his tongue to the side of his mouth as well. When you place your hand, at the bars, into his mouth, he will try to spit it out, gently take his tongue and pull it out to the side.

We have now taught the horse to accept us working around and in his mouth and we are ready to introduce the worming tools. We will start with an empty wormer syringe. Bring the horses head into position in front of you and take the empty syringe and begin by rubbing it all over the horses’ face, mouth and lips. When he is quiet for that, rub the syringe along the inside of the lips where it will be used later. When the horse is calm with that, insert the syringe into the horse’s mouth as if you were going to administer the wormer and push the plunger. Continue with this until the horse accepts the empty wormer.

Now find a paste substitute that your horse likes such as syrup, applesauce, baby food, etc. Place a small amount into the wormer syringe and administer it to the horse. Do this daily until the horse looks forward to the wormer. Now we are ready to pull a fast one on them. Take your wormer and without hesitation, administer it to the horse. Later that day dose him again with the substitute that he likes. If he is hesitant back up until he is calm and administer the substitute until he looks forward to it again. The next time you are ready to worm him, go in with the wormer and administer with out hesitation.

Jodi Wilson is a recognized authority on the subject of horse training and has spent almost 30 years developing training techniques and solutions for horse owners no matter the discipline or breed.

Jodi is an Accredited Josh Lyons trainer, and is Certified in John Lyons training techniques. Her website, http://Jodi-Wilson.com, provides a wealth of information to improve the relationship between horse and rider. Jodi is also available for clinics and demonstrations as well as lessons, apprenticeships, and horse training.

Jodi has trained and competed in Reining, Sorting, Jumping, Dressage, English and Western Pleasure, Trail and Problem Solving.

Author: Jodi M Wilson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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